I lived here … Dr Tony Ryan (founder of Ryanair)

When it was quietly put on the market after Tony Ryan died in 2007 it was the most expensively priced house in Irish history: €80m. Later that was dropped to €60m, and now it’s POA.

Lyons Demesne

When Ryan bought the Georgian pile it was in a shoddy state of repair and he is said to have spent €100 million on an award-winning restoration that included the painstaking recovery of a series of museum-quality frescoes by the Italian artist Gaspare Gabrielli (1805-1830).

Aside from the frescoes, commissioned by the original owner Lord Cloncurry, the house comes with 600 acres, a private cinema, gymnasium, wine cellar, a half-Olympic sized indoor swimming pool, seven bedrooms in the main house, as well as four additional bedrooms in a self-contained guest wing. Five lodges are also on the grounds.

There are no plans to sell the contents of the house, which include fine collections of 18th century Irish furniture and paintings, said to be worth around €11 million.

It’s tempting to feel a twinge of sympathy for the family who can’t seem to find a buyer, but I wouldn’t worry too much about them: when Ryan passed away he left them €95,454,753 in his will.

Think about that the next time Ryanair drive you to distraction with their miserable penny-pinching ways!